Morning journal and courier., 1887-12-16
COMMUNICATIONS.
The State House for the People.

The State House Tor the FeOP1es To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Although the destiny of the State House and the mode of it's repair are to be finally settled by special committee, yet as every citizen and taxpayer has an interest in the subject and corresponding right to be heard I venture, with your permission, to make the following suggestions:
 1. In the first place, as the building is HOW to be maintained at the expense of the whole people, it is evident that it should be de- l voted to uses from which the entire people derive equal advantages; and that no society whose principles or purposes or entrance fees exclude any portion of the people from it's membership should be allowed to appropriate part of the building to their use gratuitously or otherwise, until every possible public use, which can be made of it has been fully served.
 3. In tine second place, what use to which the building can be put could be more truly use by the whole people than to make it a town hall, open to every citizen and to every organization of citizens for any proper pur- pose for which hall might be employed? Such hall is needed not only for town and city meetings, but also for lectures, fairs, po- litical, temperance or industrial conventions, college commencements, etc., etc., for which no suitable place now exists in this city. This need can be supplied by constructing hall occupying the main floor of the State House, with proper galleries; or if this is architecturally impossible, by approximating such a construction as nearly as the building will permit.
 g. In the third place the amount expend- ed for present repairs ought not to exceed what is necessary for the presentation of the building and it's adaptation to public use. The proposition to face the lower part with stone, replace the marble steps with granite, cover the structure with brick, etc, etc., seems to me- at feast, to involve an expense wholly unwarrantable. The building is not a jewel, that it should be enclosed in so choice casket It cannot be made thing of beauty by any process of ornamentation. To put it in such condition that it will an swer it's practical uses and be preserved from decay is all that the public interest requires. And this. so far as the exterior of the build ing is concerned, ought to be accomplished at small cost. Let the marble facing be removed and the stucco be carried down to the bottom of the walls in keeping with the original design. Remove the north steps altogether and stucco the wall which supports the portico. Those steps are useless, and the portico, railed in, would make an excellent platform for addressing open-air meetings. On the south front two wide flights or wider single flight of stone steps can replace the marble stairs, finishing the remainder of that front with stucco on an upright wall. These comparatively inex- pensive changes, with suitable repairs to the roof, cornice, etc., are all that the building needs outside to make it useful, permanent and as beautiful as the public purse will jus l tify. What shall be done inside can be in telligently discussed only when the object to which the building is to be devoted has been finally decided. k.